An appeals court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to end protections from deportation for Afghans and Cameroonians, declining to bar removals amid a review of the move’s legality.

The decision will impact more than 10,000 citizens of both countries who remain in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which bars deportation of those who cannot safely return to their country due to civil unrest or a natural disaster.

While a lower court had agreed to bar deportations for another week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to continue to bar them while the legal battle continued.

“There is insufficient evidence to warrant the extraordinary remedy of a postponement of agency action pending appeal,” they court wrote.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ended TPS for both countries, with protections for Afghans designed to end last week and protection for Cameroonians set to expire August 4.

In doing so, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reversed findings of the Biden administration that each country was too dangerous for its citizens to be returned.

Some 9,600 Afghans and nearly 3,500 Cameroonians have TPS, according to The National Immigration Forum. 

Those impacted will have to apply for asylum or protections under the Convention Against Torture in order to remain in the country.

Afghanistan remains under Taliban rule and deteriorating conditions in the country have accelerated since the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, including widespread food insecurity.

Many of the roughly 80,000 Afghans who came to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul have adjusted their status, either securing asylum or a special immigrant visa given to those who assisted U.S. military efforts there. 

“Thousands of Afghans who served alongside U.S. forces are now at risk of detention and deportation,” Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, said in a statement.

“These are our allies, neighbors, coworkers—people who believed in the promises this country made.”

The Biden administration had also cited armed conflict in Cameroon as a rationale for keeping protections there.

“Since 2014, ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Cameroon and nonstate armed groups in the Far North Region, specifically Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has resulted in killings, kidnappings, displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure,” the Biden administration wrote in the 2023 re-designation.